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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
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PRESENTED BY 

UNITED STATES OP AMERICA. 



THE VALUE 



STUDY OF HEBREW FOR A MINISTER 



BY 



EDWARD J. YOUNG, 



HANCOCK TROFESSOR OF HEBREW IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY. 



*v 



[Reprinted from "The Unitarian Review" for May, 1879.] 




BOSTON : 

PRESS OF GEORGE H. ELLIS. 

1879. 



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With the Compliments of the Writer. 



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THE VALUE OP THE STUDY OP HEBREW 
FOR A MINISTER. 



An eminent English scientific lecturer is reported to have 
said to his students, " Above all, avoid that question which 
ignorance too often addresses to genius, What is the use of 
your work ? " Science, in his opinion, deserves to be pur- 
sued for its own sake, and it is degraded when its advocates 
are obliged to meet the question of utility. In a similar 
manner, a distinguished professor in Germany began his 
lectures on the history of philosophy by saying, What good 
is to be derived from this study ? It is like art, a nepiTTdv, a 
luxury, not a necessary, for man, a studium liberate^ having 
no end out of itself, but being its own end. It might seem 
somewhat extravagant if one should urge the study of 
Hebrew on the ground of its being a luxury for man, 
although in former times A Garden Bed of Spices was the 
title given to a work on Hebrew grammar, and Delieice 
Hebrceo-Philologicce was the designation of a treatise on 
Hebrew philology.* The question, however, is put in regard 
to every branch of knowledge that claims attention in this 
age, Qui bono f and we propose, therefore, to point out some 
of the advantages arising from an acquaintance with this 
department of learning, although it must be borne in mind 
that everything is not to be judged by its tangible and 
immediate uses ; for the question, " What is it good for ? " 
as has been said, would abolish the rose and be triumphantly 
answered by the cabbage. 



* See also Bibliancler, Adami, Delieice ebrceo-homileticce, d.i., Ergetzlichkeiten cler 
pbraischer Sprache auff der Cantzel zu gebrauchen. Dresden. 1707. 



4 Value of the Study of Hebreiv for a Minister, 

It seems surprising at the present day that such marked 
prominence was once given to this language. From the 
first settlement of the country until a little more than a half- 
century ago an acquaintance with it was considered essential 
to a liberal education, and undergraduates acquired more 
familiarity with it than is now gained by divinity students. 
At Harvard College, under the presidency of Dunster, no 
one could receive his first degree unless he was able to 
render the original of the Old and New Testament into the 
Latin tongue, and Hebrew was then printed without the 
vowel signs. In 1708, at morning prayers, all the students 
were ordered to read a verse out of the Old Testament from 
the Hebrew into Greek, except the Freshmen, who were 
allowed to use their English Bibles. Orations in Hebrew 
were spoken at Commencement ; and Judge Sewall in his 
diary, 1685 (Vol.1, p. 85) alludes to one by Nathanael Mather, 
and adds, " Mr. President, after giving the degrees, made an 
oration in praise of academical studies and degrees, Hebrew 
tongue." * Even during President Kirkland's administra- 
tion, the custom of students delivering Hebrew orations was 
continued, and the last of these was given in 1817 by one 
who is still living, and who says that it was received by the 
audience with roars of laughter. The study of this language 
was obligatory upon all, regardless of what was to be their 
destination in life ; for it was held, as a vote of the Presi- 
dent and Fellows of Harvard College declared, that "the 
knowledge of it is necessary to the Divine, useful to the 
Scholar, and reputable to the Gentleman ; and it is, there- 



* Governor William Bradford prefixed to his History of Plymouth eight pages of 
Hebrew roots with English explanations, giving the following introduction: "Though 
I am growne aged, yet I have had a longing desire to see, with my owne eyes, some- 
thing of that most aucient language and holy tongue, in which the Law and Oracles 
of God were writ. And though I canot attaine to much herein, yet I am refreshed to 
have seen some glimpse hereof; (as Moyses saw the land of Canan a farr of). My 
aime and desire is, to see how the words and phrases lye in the holy texte ; and to 
discerne somewhat of the same, for my owne contente." 



Value of the Study of Hebrew for a Minister. 5 

fore, required that the students of the University be 
instructed in the elements and first principles of this simple, 
ancient, and venerable tongue." Edward Everett, who be- 
longed to the class of 1811, referring in an after-dinner 
speech to his Hebrew studies in college, mentioned that a 
classmate being called upon unexpectedly to recite from the 
Psalter, and knowing nothing of the lesson, availed himself 
of a Latin translation which was printed on the same page, 
but began at the wrong line, and made a misfit all the way 
down. President John Adams, who founded the Adams 
Academy in Quincy, desired that a school-master should be 
procured for it who was conversant with " the Greek and 
Latin languages," and also, "if thought advisable, the 
Hebrew, not to make learned Hebricians, but to teach such 
young men as choose to learn it the Hebrew alphabet, the 
rudiments of the Hebrew grammar and lexicon, that in 
after life they may pursue the study to what extent they 
please." For admission to the Divinity School of Harvard 
University from 1884 to 1839, candidates were required to 
pass an examination in Hebrew grammar, and in the first 
ten chapters of Deuteronomy; and when Dr. Palfrey was 
the Dean, the classes recited in Hebrew during the winter 
by candle-light before breakfast. 

The estimation in which this language was held and the 
attention that was universally paid to it were due undoubt- 
edly to the fact that it was regarded as a sacred tongue, the 
primitive dialect of mankind, the mother of all languages, 
since, according to Genesis xi. 1, it was the only speech in 
existence before the confusion at Babel. It was this which, 
it was believed, Adam spoke in Paradise, and which the 
saints will use in heaven. It was even supposed to be the 
language of the Almighty, which he employed in his com- 



6 Value of the Study of Hebrew for a Minister. 

munications with men and angels.* To-day, however, no 
study is held in less esteem, or is more spoken against. 
From having been greatly overrated, it is now greatly under- 
rated. It is regarded as antiquated, unnecessary, and worth- 
less, and there are those who would endorse the sentiment 
of Thoreau, that it is more important to know slang than 
Hebrew. " Don't write in Hebrew, I had enough of that 
long ago," was the conclusion of a note which was received 
by the writer of this essay from one of the ministers of his 
own denomination. 

Among those who manifest a disinclination and repug- 
nance to this study, there are some who do not desire a 
thorough education, who are satisfied with moderate attain- 
ments, who prefer those topics of thought which require least 
effort, who object to whatever is to them uninteresting, and 
who are, therefore, opposed to Hebrew, Textual Criticism, 
Exegesis, and in some cases to Systematic Theology. These 
persons, if studying law, would demur to the drudgery of 
examining precedents, and, if members of a scientific school, 
would protest against what is required in mathematics. So 
college students sometimes burn one text-book and bury 
another, the study of which has been distasteful and irk- 
some. But if only those branches are to be chosen which 
are agreeable and attractive, many important subjects must 
be dropped both in the preparatory and the professional 
schools. Others again have no taste or capacity for the 
acquisition of languages; they do not believe in the value of 
a study of the classics, and in the benefit to be derived from 
reading in the original the great orators and poets : but they 
think that the time that is thus spent should rather be 
devoted to modern philosophy and science. 



* Dove, De linf/uon hebrcece, excellentia, qua Deus ipse, primi nostrl parentes in 
Paradiso usl sunt. Witteb. 1627. 



Value of the Study of Hebrew for a Minister. 7 

It is to be regretted that this study is usually begun so 
late, after the student has graduated from college, and when 
he is less disposed to learn the forms and rules of a grammar 
and to turn over the leaves of a lexicon. On account of the 
strangeness of the characters, considerable time must elapse 
before he can read with facility and accuracy, and the teacher 
is often reminded of the recitations in that school described 
by the poet, where — 

" Each name was called as many various ways 
As pleased the reader's ear on different days, 
So that the weather, or the ferule's stings, 
Colds in the head, or fifty other things, 
Transformed the helpless Hebrew thrice a week 
To guttural Pequot or resounding Greek, 
The vibrant accent skipping here and there, 
Just as it pleased invention or despair." 

In Germany, Hebrew is taught in the upper classes of the 
gymnasia, so that when the scholar enters the university he 
has not to begin the alphabet, but all the preliminary work 
is left behind. In Scotland, the practice is spreading of 
demanding from students a considerable knowledge of He- 
brew before they enter the theological classes. The General 
Theological Seminary of the Episcopalians in New York is 
the only one known to us in this country, where, according 
to their published circular, an acquaintance with the pri- 
mary elements of this language is required of applicants for 
admission. 

Many think that Hebrew is unnecessary, since they can 
get along without it ; and that it is a waste of time to study 
a dead language, which will be so readily forgotten. It is 
true that there are successful ministers who know nothing 
of Hebrew ; and that many a one, if he should attempt to 
look out his text in the Old Testament in the original, 



8 Value of the Study of Hebrew for a Minister. 

would acknowledge, with Henry Ward Beecher, that it 
would take him most of the week to ascertain what it was. 
The question, indeed, has been asked, What has hie, hcec, hoc, 
to do with the conversion of the world, and what connection 
.is there between an intimate knowledge of Greek and 
"saving souls"? It is not to be denied that a clergyman 
possibly can do without an understanding of Greek and 
Latin, German and French, chemistry and physics, mathe- 
matics, history, and philosophy ; but the question for every 
man is not, with how little he may be able to get along, but 
how much he can acquire. The minister should desire to 
have the widest range of learning. Knowledge is power. 
This knowledge, to be sure, may be forgotten ; for who 
remembers all that he has been taught in any science? — and 
yet he does not regret that he has been taught it. Even if 
we cannot instantly recall what we have once thoroughly 
learned, we still are benefited by having learned it ; we shall 
always be able to recover it, and it will come back to us 
with increased interest and value. There are not many 
graduates who could at once pass the examination for 
admission to college; but this does not prove that their 
studies there were not desirable and useful. 

The difficulty of acquiring this language has been exag- 
gerated. It requires far less time and labor than Greek or 
German. The grammatical forms are comparatively few 
and simple. The number of Hebrew and Chaldee words in 
the Old Testament is not large, since they may be included 
in a small lexicon of less than three hundred duodecimo 
pages, while nearly all the fundamental roots may be found 
in five hundred and sixty-four verses of the book of Psalms. 
There have been many accomplished Hebraists who have 
been self-taught. Julia E. Smith, when over seventy years of 
age, translated the whole Bible into English in one year and 



Value of the Study of Hebrew for a Minister. 9 

seven months, having no other helps than a Hebrew and 
Greek grammar and dictionary. A book on "The Proper 
Names of the Old Testament " arranged alphabetically from 
the original text has been published in England by a lady, 
who undertook the work as a means of making the study of 
Hebrew more profitable and interesting to herself. Dr. J. W. 
Etheridge, in the preface to his " Jerusalem and Tiberias," 
says that his daughter began to learn Hebrew when five years 
of age, more in the way of a little pleasant occasional pastime 
than as a task ; and that this practice persevered in, with the 
lapse of months and years gave her, as she almost insensibly 
and yet rapidly acquired the language, the ability to read 
the word of God in that form in which he first gave it to 
mankind ; and this did not at all interfere with the attain- 
ment by her of other accomplishments. In view of these 
facts, it is surprising to hear ministers of religion disparage 
this study. Perhaps they never applied themselves to it with 
the same earnestness and persistency which they brought to 
other subjects; or they were in the beginning prejudiced 
against it; or they never fully mastered the elementary 
forms, and consequently never made much progress after- 
wards ; or the work was not made as interesting as it might 
have been. No one certainly could have listened to Ewald 
and witnessed his enthusiasm for his work without catching 
some of his ardor and zeal, and of his admiration for the 
authors he was expounding. Moses Stuart inspired the 
students at Andover with such interest in their studies 
that, as has been said by one of them, after some of his 
exercises they would return at once to their rooms and 
eagerly open their grammars and lexicons, in order to con- 
tinue the investigations which they had begun. Those per- 
sons are not recognized as competent authorities upon 
any subject who are confessedly ignorant in regard to it ; 



10 Value of the Study of Hebrew for a Minister. 

whereas all who are best acquainted with the language under 
consideration testify to its utility and emphatically recom- 
mend it to others. 

It is a significant fact that Hebrew constitutes a part of 
the curriculum which is laid down in every theological 
school that has a high standard of scholarship. In England, 
Scotland, Germany, and in our own country, no one can 
obtain his degree in divinity, unless he has made those 
attainments which that degree represents. A school where 
this language is not studied is considered as being of a lower 
grade and adapted to those who are of inferior ability, its 
friends often think that they must apologize for its defi- 
ciency, while its best students feel that they are not receiv- 
ing a complete and solid education. Now the leading men 
of all churches in all lands would not demand that the time 
of those who are preparing for the ministry should be 
devoted to this pursuit, unless it were useful and important. 
The judgment of the faculties of theology in the various 
universities with regard to this matter is surely entitled 
to respect. Nay, those denominations that formerly neg- 
lected this study have of late insisted upon it, and in some 
seminaries it is now continued during three years. When 
the standard of theological education has thus everywhere 
risen, it will not be to the credit of any institution or any 
religious body which shall lower it. The ministry will 
cease to be a learned profession, and will lose much of its 
prestige, whenever the study of the languages in which the 
Scriptures were written shall be abandoned. If a knowledge 
of the Old Testament in the original shall be deemed unnec- 
essary, so also in time will that of the New. But if a clergy- 
man should know nothing of Greek, he would not be on an 
equality with many of the best educated persons who are 
about him ; and he would not in most cases hold a very high 



Value of the Study of Hebrew for a Minister. 11 

place in a. community if he were incapable of serving as a 
member of a committee on an academy or high school, and 
were inferior to the ministers of other churches, and were 
more ignorant than some of the boys and girls of his own 
congregation.* 

This subject commends itself to scholars on philological 
considerations. There is great value in the study of lan- 
guage, which reveals the manifold phases and workings of 
the human mind, and which surely is of not less consequence 
than the study of matter. Words are the expression of a 
people's thoughts and feelings; and their character and 
experience, their moral and religious ideas, as well as the 
signal incidents in their history, are best preserved in their 
speech. This is illustrated by the words Hebrew, Israelite, 
and Jew; by the names of the Deity, — Elohim, Jahveh, 
Jahveh Sabaoth ; by the terms which denote sin, righteous- 
ness, truth, the abode of the departed, and many others. 
And there is a special benefit to be derived from the knowl- 
edge of such an Oriental tongue. Our present linguistic 
education is confined to the ancient classical and the modern 
European languages. But these all belong to the same 
family, and it is desirable for us to have some acquaintance 
with one which is the product of a distinct race, is written 
in a different manner, has forms of construction peculiarly 
its own, and in many respects is the opposite of the others. 
Here we enter a new sphere, and observe new phenomena 
and laws. Here we see the strength and power of condensa- 
tion of a language, and we observe how, with a few well- 
chosen terms, a whole picture is graphically set before us, 
as in the blessing of Jacob and the song of Deborah, in the 
life-like description of the horse in the book of Job, and in 



* See the article by Bonamy Price in the Contemporary Review for March, 1879, 
On the Worth of a Classical Education. 



12 Value of the Study of Hebrew for a Minister. 

the beautiful characterization of the good woman in Prov- 
erbs. He who would know anything about comparative 
philology, and the possibility of tracing all words to a 
common source, — a subject which has been thought by 
some to have an important bearing on the question of 
the unity of the human race, — must not be ignorant of 
Hebrew. The Semitic nations are radically diverse from 
the Aryan nations, and we need to study their language, 
that their Eastern sentiment may complement our Western 
thought. We need to combine the influences of Hebraism 
and Hellenism, and join the talith of Shem with the pallium 
of Japheth. 

The study of Hebrew is to be recommended on broad and 
general grounds of culture. Its alphabet stands the nearest 
to hieroglyphic or picture writing, and our own as well as 
the alphabets of Europe are derived from it. It is the key 
to a literature which in some respects has never been sur- 
passed, which carries us back to a very early period, and the 
golden age of which was completed before Pindar, Herodotus, 
and Plato had been born. The opinion of the world has 
been pronounced in reference to these books, which have 
stimulated and fed the finest intellects, and have exerted an 
incalculable influence on mankind. If iEschylus and Euripi- 
des are worth reading in the original, are not likewise 
Isaiah and the book of Psalms ? The nearer we come to the 
minds of these exalted writers by reading the ipsissima verba 
in which they expressed their thoughts, the higher will be 
our appreciation, and the more we shall be inspired by them. 
The study of words and the effort to determine their exact 
meaning tend also to foster habits of carefulness, accuracy, 
and thoroughness, and serve as a check against that spirit of 
rash and hasty generalization which is observable in some 
persons who are devoted only to philosophical and scien- 
tific inquiries. 



Value of the Study of Hebrew for a Minister. 13 

Some knowledge of this language, moreover, is necessary 
if we would fully understand many terms which are occur- 
ring constantly in daily life, and which have a new signifi- 
cance when we are aware of their etymology. Who sus- 
pects that the words myrrh, cinnamon, cassia, sack, cane, 
camel, cherub, seraph, cabalistic, shibboleth, satanic, jot, jubilee, 
babel, are strictly Hebrew in their origin ? How many expres- 
sions are used in our public worship and in the reading of 
the Scriptures which are almost meaningless because they 
retain unchanged their primitive Hebrew form ! Such are 
amen, hallelujah, hosanna, selah, shekinah, and others. The 
fundamental idea of the Sabbath is to be found in the verb 
from which that word is derived; and to one who is aware 
that Pharisee comes from a root which means " to separate," 
the very pronunciation of the word gives the character of 
the person, and, as soon as it is uttered, we see the separa- 
tist, and can almost hear him say, " Stand aside, for I am 
holier than thou." There are also various proper names 
that are familiar to us, which become much more interesting 
when we perceive their literal import, and can give their 
interpretation. Thus Nathanael and Theodore, Solomon and 
Frederic, Hosea, Joshua, and Jesus are equivalents. There 
are compounds of Ab, father, such as abbot, abbess, abbey ; 
of Beth, house, like Bethel, house of God, Bethlehem, house 
of bread, Bethesda, house of mercy, Bethsaida, house of fish, 
Bethany, house of dates, Bethphage, house of figs, Bethabara, 
place of ford ; of Ben, son, as Benjamin, son of good fortune ; 
of El, God, as Elisha, Elijah, Eliezer, Elisabeth, and also 
Samuel, Nathanael, Lemuel, Daniel, Ezekiel, Emanuel, Ga- 
maliel, Joel, Michael; of Jah, Jehovah, as Josiah, Jeremiah, 
Isaiah, Nehemiah, Uzziah, Zachariah, Micah, Abijah, Oba- 
diah, Zephaniah, and others, which have a signification of 
their own that is lost to those who are unable to tell of what 



14 Value of the Study of Hebrew for a Minister. 

parts they are compounded. Besides these, there are He- 
brew words which we meet with in English dictionaries and 
commentaries, in theological reviews, and on coins and 
medals, as well as on the Jewish synagogues in our cities. 
Not all who frequent the General Theological Library in 
Boston can read the Hebrew motto upon its seal ; and few 
who have gazed at the statue of Moses by Michael Angelo, 
unless their attention has been particularly called to the 
matter, have imagined that the horns which are placed upon 
his head, and which have been falsely supposed to denote 
strength or a sort of halo, are the consequence of a mistrans- 
lation of a Hebrew word by the authors of the Latin 
Vulgate. 

An acquaintance with Hebrew is important for the minis- 
ter because it is the original of the Old Testament. He will 
have occasion often to take the text of his discourse from 
this portion of the Scriptures; he will be called to read 
from it in the services of the sanctuary, and to expound it to 
teachers and Bible-classes. If questioned as to the true 
meaning of a passage, it should be as mortifying for him to 
confess his ignorance in regard to it, as it would be for an 
instructor to acknowledge that he was uninformed with 
respect to the subjects or books which he was appointed to 
teach. It has been seriously questioned whether lawyers 
and physicians are not better acquainted with the leading 
authorities in their respective professions than clergymen 
are with their chief authorities in religion. " To teach what 
you are ignorant of!" exclaims Jerome to some of the 
sciolists of his day. "Nay (for I cannot but speak with 
indignation), not to have knowledge enough to know that 
you are ignorant!" Every minister who has but a slight 
acquaintance with Hebrew will admit its value in enabling 
him to look out his text, ascertain its proper sense, bring 



Value of the Study of Hebrew for a Minister. 15 

forth a meaning from it which may have been obscured, 
making inferences and applications which give force and 
completeness to the sermon, and proving that he is master 
of his subject. A clergyman who is a scholar will command 
respect and influence which would otherwise be denied him. 
He who has a just conception of what his office requires 
will not be satisfied until he has fully qualified himself for 
it. And in proportion as he believes that God spake unto 
the fathers by the prophets, and is convinced that these 
great seers were not deluded when they declared that the 
word of the Lord had come to them, and that against their 
will they had been called by the Holy Spirit, must their 
writings appear to him to be something more than secular 
literature, since by the testimony of the ages and by the 
verdict of the most enlightened nations of the present day 
they have no superior, and deserve the place which has been 
accorded them in the Book of books. The critical study of 
this volume in the language in which it was written will 
reveal a wealth of meaning and a beauty and power of 
expression which would otherwise be unknown, and will 
make it a new book to us; our reverence for it will increase, 
and as new light dawns upon us, and we are elevated and 
stirred by its grand utterances, we shall say with the Psalm- 
ist, " I rejoice at thy word, as one that findeth great spoil."* 
These results will not follow from the reading of a trans- 
lation. Words are not convertible from one language into 
another, as foreign coins may be exchanged for those of 



*Kalisch, the author of the well-known commentary on the Old Testament, 
after the completion of his fourth volume was seized with a severe illness, and, as a 
first effort after his partial recover}', he published a treatise on Numbers XXII. to 
XXIV., which he calls an exquisite episode and one of the choicest master-pieces of 
universal literature. "Love of such a subject," he says, "could not fail to uphold 
even a wavering strength, and to revive an often droopiEg courage. The author is 
indebted to these pursuits for many hours of the highest enjoyment, and he feels 
compelled to express his profound gratitude for having been permitted to accom- 
plish even this modest enterprise." 



16 Value of the Study of Rebreiv for a Minister. 

one's own country. Idiomatic phrases, instances of allitera- 
tion and paronomasia, cannot be transferred to a different 
form of speech. Sometimes a particle will have a peculiar 
effect upon a sentence, which can be represented by no 
equivalent word: and there may be several vocables that 
represent distinct things in one language, for which there is 
but a single corresponding appellative in another. There 
are many terms which from their origin or associations have 
acquired a signification that is lost when they are rendered 
literally into another tongue. Such are the words which in 
our Bible are translated fool, peace, name, wisdom, soul, hell, 
which repeatedly stand for something very different in the 
original. Poetry, especially, suffers most when it must be 
converted into prose or verse. Who can fairly judge of 
Homer or Dante who knows them only through the medium 
of versifiers? Translations have been well compared to 
" champagne in decanters ; " for the flavor and sparkle of the 
original are gone when it has once been poured into another 
receptacle. No one can penetrate fully into the meaning of 
an author, and understand his thoughts and his spirit, except 
by a study of his language. There are ideas and associa- 
tions which we have connected with the Old Testament that 
do not properly belong to it, and we can discover its true 
sense only by reading it in the original. The author of 
the Prologue to Ecclesiasticus begs the reader to pardon 
him where he has failed to come short of some words which 
he has labored to interpret : " For the same things uttered 
in Hebrew and translated into another tongue have not the 
same force in them ; and not only these things, but the law 
itself, and the prophets, and the rest of the books, have no 
small difference, when they are spoken in their own lan- 
guage." 

But who would be willing to accept a copy of the work of 



Value of the Study of Hebrew for a Minister, 17 

a great master when he can have the original ? Even if it 
were faithfully done, we should miss the delicate shading, 
the unmistakable touch and coloring of the artist. And what 
copy shall we take, for there are numerous ones by various 
scholars, Jewish and Christian, which differ widely? Will 
we be satisfied also with a translation of the New Testament 
in lieu of the Greek, as on the same principles we should be ? 
How, then, can we object to the Koman Catholic who de- 
pends upon his Latin version ? * But our authorized Eng- 
lish version is notoriously inadequate, so that a new transla- 
tion has been called for, and is now in preparation. The 
readings in King James's Bible often give no sense, or a false 
one. What idea is derived from the words, " Song of 
Degrees," or from such passages as the following : " O my 
soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord : my 
goodness extendeth not to thee ; but to the saints that are in 
the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight " 
(Psalms xvi. 2, 3). "Blessed is the man whose strength is 
in thee ; in whose heart are the ways of them. Who passing 
through the valley of Baca, make it a well ; the rain also 
filleth the pools " (Psalms lxxxiv. 5, 6). " Thy people shall 
be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holi- 
ness from the womb of the morning : thou hast the dew of 
thy youth" (Psalms ex. 3). What would the average 
reader understand to be the meaning of these verses: "He 
setteth an end to darkness, and searcheth out all perfection : 
the stones of darkness, and the shadow of death. The flood 
breaketh out from the inhabitant : even the waters forgotten 
of the foot : they are dried up, they are gone away from 

\» 

* Luther said: " Die Ebraer trinken aus tier Brunn quelle ; die Griechen aber aus 
den Wasserlein, die aus der Quelle fliessen; die Lateinischen aber aus der Pfiitzen." 
Yet it should not be forgotten that there have been among the Roman Catholics 
eminent Hebraists, like Richard Simon, Geddes, de Rossi, Jahn, and Hug; and it is 
worthy of mention that Dr. J. J. Wagner, Professor at Bamberg, published a tract, 
Von der Wichtigkeit der Hebraischen Sprache fur den kalholischen Theologen. 



18 Value of the Study of Hebrew for a Minister. 

men" (Job xxviii. 3, 4). "Behold, he drinketh up a river, 
and hasteth not : he trusteth that he can draw up Jordan 
into his mouth. He taketh it with his eyes : his nose pierc- 
eth through snares " (Job xl. 23, 24). In many instances, 
an entirely erroneous impression is conveyed by our version. 
Thus in Genesis i. 2, where we read "the spirit of God 
moved," the verb should be translated brooded, as it is cor- 
rectly rendered by Milton : — 

" Dove-like sat'st brooding on the vast abyss 
And mad'st it pregnant." 

In Genesis ii. 2, it is said, " And on the seventh day God 
ended his work," which implies that he worked on the 
seventh day, which is contrary to the narrative, and which 
led the Seventy, as well as the authors of the Samaritan 
and Syriac versions, deliberately to alter the text, and to sub- 
stitute the words " sixth day." In Genesis in\ 8, we read, 
"And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking," 
although the Deity had not yet spoken, and it is the " sound 
of footsteps " that is meant. In Genesis iv. 15, it is recorded 
that " the Lord set a mark upon Cain," implying some 
brand-mark which was stamped upon him as a disgrace ; 
whereas the preposition should be translated "for," and the 
context shows that this sign was given for his benefit, in 
order that he might not be killed. In Leviticus xvi. 8, it 
is commanded that Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats : 
one lot for the Lord, and the other lot for the scape-goat ; 
but the last word is clearly an antithesis to " the Lord," and 
it should be rendered " for Azazel," which was the name of 
an evil spirit. Great misunderstanding has arisen from our 
translation of Judges i. 19, which relates that the Lord was 
with Judah, and he drave out the inhabitants of the moun- 
tain, but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley 



Value of the Study of Hebrew for a Minister. 19 

because they had chariots of iron, which is supposed to give 
a very narrow conception of the power of the Deity; but the 
word "he" should be rendered "it," or "they," as referring 
to the tribe of Judah, and then all misconception would be 
removed. The doctrine of the resurrection of the body, it 
has been supposed, is taught in Job xix. 26, " In my flesh I 
shall see God " ; but the preposition, taken in connection 
with the previous verb " destroy," really signifies " free 
from," " without," " stripped of," and thus the very oppo- 
site belief is here inculcated.* A strange impression is 
given by the phrase in Job xxxi. 35, " that mine adversary 
had written a book " ; whereas the writer expresses a wish 
that his adversary would write down the charge which he 
brings against him. In Psalm xvi. 9, 10, our version says, 
" My flesh also shall rest in hope : for thou wilt not leave 
my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to 
see corruption"; but the Psalmist sang, "My flesh dwelleth 
(or shall dwell) in safety ; for thou, wilt not leave (or abandon) 
my soul to Sheol, thou wilt not give thy pious ones to see 
the pit, (or the grave)," thus expressing his confidence that 
God would watch over his life and preserve him from death. 
Psalm xix. 3 declares, as we have it, " There is no speech 
nor language where their voice is not heard " ; but this 
should be rendered, " They have no speech nor language, 
and their voice is not heard, yet their line (or strain) is gone 



*That this passage refers to the author's seeing God in spirit in a future life, is 
the view of Ewald, Delitzsch, Hupfeld, Oehler, Dillinann, Zockler, Umbreit (who once 
held a different opinion), Dr. Davidson, and others. Dr. Noyes maintained that the 
expectation of Job refers to a time before his death, when his body would be without 
flesh, having been wasted away to a mere skeleton. But the verb translated destroy 
will not allow this interpretation; and Dillmann justly says that a skeleton must at 
least have flesh on it in order to be capable of life (see ver. 20), and that the expres- 
sion, " without my flesh," would not in any language mean emaciated or wasted 
away. 



20 Value of the Study of Hebrew for a Minister, 

forth through all the world," as Addison has correctly trans- 
lated in his well-known paraphrase of this Psalm : — 

" What though in solemn silence all 
Move round this dark terrestrial ball ; 
What though nor real voice nor sound 
Amidst their radiant orbs be found ; 
In Reason's ear they all rejoice, 
And utter forth a glorious voice." 

The thirteenth verse of this Psalm as it stands in our Bible, 
" I shall be innocent from the great transgression," sug- 
gests to the mind some vague, mysterious, and awful crime, 
which is not at all warranted by the original ; for we should 
simply read, "I shall be innocent from great transgression." 
In like manner, if the indefinite article were substituted in 
the fourth verse of the twenty-third Psalm, it would corre- 
sponds more exactly with the Hebrew, and at the same time 
indicate that it is not the valley of death, but a dark vale in 
life, that was in the mind of the poet, as the contrasting 
images in verses two and four represent. In Psalm xlv. 8, 
a much truer and better sense will be obtained if, instead of 
" out of the ivory palaces whereby they have made thee glad," 
we read, " out of the ivory palaces stringed instruments make 
thee glad." Many beautiful and consolatory religious pieces 
have been suggested by the line in Psalm cxxvii. 2 : " For so 
he giveth his beloved sleep." But the writer has no reference 
to the sleep of death ; he is urging trust in God, and the 
folly of being over-anxious for the morrow. Vain is it, he 
says, for men to rise up early and retire late to rest, eating 
the bread of wearisome labor and sorrow ; for so He giveth 
it to his beloved even while they sleep. Proverbs xxxi. 10, 
ff., according to our Bible, contains a eulogium on the 
44 virtuous woman " ; but this is a misnomer for which the 
wise man who wrote the description is not responsible, 



Value of the Study of Hebrew for a Minister. . 21 

since it is not the virtue, but the ability, of this model 
Jewish wife which he commends. In Canticles i. 13, a very 
unfortunate mistake has been made by our translators, ren- 
dering " he " instead of " it," which grossly perverts the 
sentiment of the maiden who compares her beloved to a 
bundle of myrrh which rests on her bosom.* 

The foregoing are only a few of the instances which might 
be cited to show that our common version is not to be 
implicitly relied upon. But even the new revision which is 
expected will not make a knowledge of Hebrew superfluous. 
For in the first place, many passages which a large number 
of the revisers might wish to change may remain unaltered, 
since no modification can be made in the text of our Bible 
unless it shall be approved by two-thirds of the whole 
company. They will not adopt certain alterations which 
might be thought desirable if an entirely new transla- 
tion were to be given to the public. They will not amend 
the title of the Old Testament, although it should be the 
Old Covenant ; and they will not substitute Jehovah for 
Lord, notwithstanding that the former is the proper designa- 
tion, which was not pronounced by the Jews, although that 
would seem to be no valid reason why it should not be used 
by Christians. Moreover, the occurrence of the word "Lord," 
in the Old Testament signifying Jehovah, and in the New 
Testament indicating Christ, tends to create confusion, and 
Psalm ex. 1 would be made much more intelligible if, 
instead of " The Lord said unto my Lord," the clause should 
be rendered literally, "Jehovah said unto my lord (or sover- 
eign)," since it is the king who is about going forth to war 
that is addressed. Neither will the Revision Committee be 



*This is the interpretation adopted by the Jewish scholars, Mendelssohn, Fiirst, 
Philippson, Cahen, Leeser, and also by Luther, Ewald, Delitzsch, Zbckler, Rosen- 
miiller, Kamphausen (in Bunsen's Bibelwerk), Ginsburg, Fausset, Kitto, Kingsbury, 
and others. 



22 Value of the Study of Hebrew for a Minister. 

at liberty to modify the present division of chapters, al- 
though the first three verses of the second chapter in Gene- 
sis should be included in the first chapter, since they form 
the conclusion of one account of the creation, and another 
narrative begins immediately afterwards. So also Psalms 
xlii. and xliii. should be joined together, since they are 
properly one Psalm ; and Isaiah xiii. and xiv., lii. and liii., 
should be similarly united. And in respect to such emenda- 
tions as may be adopted by the Commission, discussion will 
arise, reasons for the changes will be asked for, and it will be 
necessary to refer to the original Scriptures to see whether 
these things be so. There will be the same need then that 
there is now of a knowledge that will enable one to form an 
intelligent judgment in regard to controverted passages, if 
he would see with his own eyes and not take his opinions at 
second hand. 

There are also other questions, such as those which involve 
the relation of Scripture to science ; questions of doctrine, 
such as whether immortality is taught in the Old Testament; 
questions of ethics, like that which turns upon the meaning 
of the several words that denote wine, — for the discussion of 
all of which a knowledge of Hebrew is indispensable. But 
besides these, there are very important critical questions 
which are pressing for solution at the present day. These 
questions relate to the age and composition of the Penta- 
teuch, to the Messianic and the Maccabean Psalms, to the 
authorship of Isaiah, chapters xl. to lxvi., to the unit}' of 
Zechariah, the date of the book of Daniel, the formation of 
the canon, and other similar topics. For the determination 
of these matters, there is needed especially a familiarity with 
the internal evidence, with the peculiarities of style of the 
different writers, with the derivation and meaning of words, 
and the use of idioms. Amid the contradictory opinions 



Value of the Study of Hebrew for a Minister. 23 

that are advanced by various schools, which shall we adopt, 
and how can we come to any satisfactory conclusion unless 
we are able in some measure to decide upon the merits of 
each case ? We ought at least to be qualified to appreciate 
and weigh the arguments which are brought forward in 
these discussions, in order that we may have good and suffi- 
cient reasons for our own belief, and may be able to speak 
understandingly to others. We need a knowledge of He- 
brew to enable us to test the various theories that are put 
forth, and to refute those which are utterly baseless. Many 
a wild hypothesis has been hastily embraced and promul- 
gated by those who were fascinated by its novelty, but who 
were utterly ignorant of its inherent falsity. It seems to be 
deemed in some quarters altogether unnecessary for one to 
be acquainted with the original of the Old Testament who 
undertakes to discuss questions that are intimately con- 
nected with it. But what should we think of an individual 
who should presume to write a work upon the Homeric 
poems who was unable to read Greek ; or who should treat 
of the plays that have been ascribed to Plautus without a 
knowledge of Latin ; or who should argue about the author- 
ship of the letters of Junius, when he could not understand 
the English language, and knew them only in a translation ? 
Such a person might speak very positively and dogmatically, 
because he has no doubts, and knows not the difficulties of 
the subject. But this would not entitle him to be consid- 
ered an authority. Whoever has not prepared himself by a 
thorough study of the original sources for a full comprehen- 
sion of these subjects in all their bearings is not qualified to 
pronounce upon them, and might well hesitate before assum- 
ing to be a teacher of others. 

A knowledge of Hebrew is also necessary for the under- 
standing of the New Testament, the language of which is 



24 Value of the Study of Hebrew for a Minister. 

not classic but Hellenistic Greek, abounding in Hebraisms, 
since it was written by men who were imbued with the 
ideas and phraseology of the Old Testament. There are 
Hebrew utterances of Jesus, in the Aramaic form, such as 
those which he used to the daughter of Jairus (Mark v. 41), 
and those which he breathed in his last moments'upon the 
cross (Matthew xxvii. 46). In the Gospels and Epistles 
there are quotations from the Old Testament which we 
must compare with the original (since they often vary from 
it) if we would comprehend them. As examples may be 
mentioned John x. 34, 35, and Hebrews x. 5 (compare 
Psalm xl. 6). There are Hebrew words in the New Testa- 
ment, some of them in Chaldaic form, which are printed in 

Greek letters. Such are 'Afiaddav, 'AneMa/ia, 'ApfiayE<$cn>, Tappada 
yievvUj Tedey/uavF,. To'/r;o6a. I\//oac. Kop3ar. uapavada. ^.leca'tac. -oo^a. pa3 : 1i, 

iviKu. and others. There are also many expressions which are 
thoroughly Hebraic. According to Jewish usage, " name " 
and " soul " often stand for " person " ; and hence we find 
such phrases as " that we should believe on the name of his 
Son, Jesus Christ" (1 John iii. 23), and "let every soul be 
subject unto the higher powers" (Romans xiii. 1). We 
read also of children of the bride-chamber, children of the 
resurrection, children of disobedience, children of light and 
of darkness, children of the kingdom and of the wicked one, 
and also of the son of peace, the son of perdition, the son of ' 
consolation, and the sons of thunder, which indicate unmis- 
takabl}' their origin. We. meet with such idioms as "to see 
life," " to see death," " they shall be called the children of 
God," for " they shall be the children of God," and the like. 
Since the Hebrews had no generic terms, they often employ 
paraphrases, as in Genesis i. 1, "In the beginning God 
created the heavens and the earth," by which evidently is 
meant the universe, since the creation of the heavens is 



Value of the Study of Hebrew for a Minister. 25 

stated in verses 7, 8, and of the earth in verses 9, 10. Jesus 
follows this usage in Matthew v. 18, where he says, " Till 
heaven and earth pass " ; xi. 25, " I thank thee, O Father, 
Lord of heaven and earth"; xxiv. 35, "Heaven and earth 
shall pass away." The style of the Hebrew writers was very 
pictorial, and Jesus and his apostles frequently use the word 
" behold," and the evangelists paint for us the scenes which 
they describe by giving every detail, and saying, " He arose 
and came to his father," " He opened his mouth and taught 
them," " He sent messengers before his face," " He answered 
and said," "And the eyes of all were fastened on him." 
There are many grammatical constructions which are pecul- 
iarly Hebraistic, such as the use of the particle «, " if," in 
solemn asseverations, there being an ellipsis of the words, 
" God do so to me," which may have been indicated by some 
gesture, but which in reading must be supplied. Numerous 
other instances might be adduced, if it were practicable ; 
but we will only add that many points of interest in the 
New Testament escape the attention of the reader who is 
not familiar with Hebrew, as in Matthew xxiii. 2, where the 
paronomasia used by Jesus is lost entirely in the Greek, 
since, in saying that the Scribes and the Pharisees sit in 
Moses' seat, he must have employed the words Mosheh and 
Moshab. A knowledge of Hebrew alone can furnish us with 
an explanation of many passages in the New Testament. 
Thus the statement in 1 Corinthians viii. 4, "An idol is 
nothing in the world," is far more expressive when we are 
aware that the Greek word eiSuiov really stands for the 
Hebrew term which is used contemptuously of the heathen 
deities, and may be translated "godling" or "no god" 
(Psalm xcvi. 5). So Galatians v. 14, has a new significance 
when we remember that the Hebrew name of the Decalogue 
is the "Ten Words," and notice that Paul declares that "all 



26 Value of the Study of Hebrew for a Minister. 

the law is fulfilled in one word." The phrase " hem of his 
garment " in Matthew ix. 20, is an error of our translators, 
which originated in their taking Kpaonedov in its usual Greek 
sense, as " edge, border, hem " ; whereas in this passage it is 
used to denote the Tsitsith, and signifies the fringe or tassel 
which the Israelites wore on the corners of certain gar- 
ments (Numbers xv. 38). The famous controversy about iari 
in connection with the doctrines of transubstantiation and 
consubstantiation appears a waste of words to one who 
knows that the copula is usually not expressed in Hebrew, 
so that probably Jesus never used it at the time of the institu- 
tion of the Lord's Supper. 

The example and testimony of many scholars might be 
adduced in favor of the study of this language. Augustine 
urged the importance of it from a consciousness of his own 
shortcomings. Jerome went to great trouble and expense 
in securing the services of a Jew to help him in his Hebrew 
studies. Luther said that his knowledge of Hebrew was 
limited, yet that he would not part with it for untold gold. 
Melanchthon declared that the little he knew of Hebrew he 
esteemed of the greatest value on account of the judgment 
he was enabled to form in regard to religion (propter judi- 
cium de Religione). Milton devoted several hours every 
morning to the study of the Scriptures in Hebrew, he 
recommends it in his treatise on Education (Prose Works, 
III. 473), and his own writings both in prose and poetry 
attest how much he was indebted to that study. Coleridge 
used to read ten or twelve verses of Hebrew every evening, 
ascertaining the ' exact meaning of every substantive ; and 
he repeatedly expressed his surprise and pleasure at finding 
that in nine cases out of ten the bare primary sense, if 
literally rendered, threw great additional light on the text. 
(Table Talk, p. 86.) Bunsen wrote to his son in 1840, "My 



Value of the Study of Hebrew for a Minister. 27 

good boy, do learn Hebrew well, — else you will continue 
unripe as long as you live, in many respects. It is compara- 
tively an easy language, and yet in our time scarcely any 
one is fluent in it. Only become possessed of the inflec- 
tions and the common roots ; those must be taken by 
storm." (Memoirs, I. 561.) The Honorable Robert Lowe, 
of England, ex-Chancellor of the Exchequer, who was Home 
Secretary in the ministry of Mr. Gladstone, and at the 
present time is a member of Parliament for London Univer- 
sity, delivered an address on the education of boys, in 
which he said : " There is one language which I think it is 
a great pity is almost entirely excluded from school educa- 
tion in England. It is the most ancient, and perhaps the 
most interesting in itself, of all languages — I mean the 
Hebrew. It seems to me, I confess, inconceivable how it 
should happen that so very few of our clergy are acquainted 
with the Hebrew. I cannot understand how a man can 
consider himself as having competently mastered the ele- 
ments of theology when he is not acquainted with that lan- 
guage. It is not merely the knowledge of the language 
itself, but the light which it throws, and which nothing 
else can throw, upon the text of the New Testament, for 
instance. The view a man has, the knowledge that a man 
gets of the Bible, when he reads it standing on the vantage- 
ground of a knowledge of Hebrew, is infinitely greater 
than can be got by taking these books up and passing to 
them not naturally from the knowledge of the Hebrew of 
the Old Testament, but from the Greek classics. I hope to 
see the day when in our schools there will at any rate be an 
option for the study of Hebrew. Nothing can tend more to 
develop a thorough and sound knowledge of the Bible, or 
to make our clergy learned and competent in their voca- 
tion." 



28 Value of the Study of Hebrew for a Minister. 

There seems to be less reason for the neglect of this study, 
since it can be so easily kept up. Let one read aloud a few- 
verses regularly every day, let him commit to memory 
favorite passages, let him familiarize himself with the 
Hebrew version of the New Testament,* and he will not 
only retain his present knowledge, but he, will add steadily 
to the stock which he has gained. The minister can find, 
if he will, sufficient time for this, if he takes only that 
which would be devoted to other less profitable pursuits. 
As he comes into close contact and sympathy with these 
sacred bards and prophets, his own mind will be filled with 
their majestic thoughts, and his style will insensibly acquire 
dignity and strength by familiarity with their matchless 
compositions. He will have a greater interest in that 
volume which forms the foundation of the records of our 
religion, the teachings of which Jesus came not to destroy 
but to fulfil, in which we see the first rising of that sun 
which in Christianity reaches its meridian, and now blesses 
us with its perfect day. 



*A very convenient, cheap, and excellent edition of the Hebrew New Testament, 
prepared by Professor Franz Delitzsch, has been recently printed in Leipzig for the 
British and Foreign Bible Society. 



THE VALUE 



STUDY OF HEBREW FOR A MINISTER 



BY 



EDWARD J. YOUNG, 



HANCOCK PROFESSOR OF HEBREW IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY. 



[Reprinted from "The Unitarian Review" for May, 1879.] 



BOSTON : 

PRESS OF GEORGE H. ELLIS. 

1879. 



ft 



